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Cassiopeia is a bright constellation located near the North Celestial Pole. It’s brightest stars whose magnitudes range from 2.5 to 3.4 form a "W" and is one of the easiest of the constellations to identify. Cassiopeia and the Big Dipper form a seesaw with the Polaris star at the fulcrum point. When Cassiopeia is up, the Big Dipper is down and visa-versa.
Gamma Cassiopeia, in the middle of the "W", is a variable star whose brightness can be as dim as magnitude 3.0 and as bright as 1.6.
The Milky Way runs through Cassiopeia and which makes it especially interesting to look at through binoculars. One of the most extraordinary celestial events took place in the Cassiopeia region when a supernova appeared there in 1572. The supernova itself burst thousands of years before, but its light reached our Solar System only in 1572. A supernova occurs when a star at least 3 times larger than our Sun runs out of nuclear fuel (Hydrogen to be converted into Helium). An intense nuclear reaction takes place, which creates an incredible amount of heat and light. For a brief time a supernova is brighter than all the other stars in the galaxy put together. The supernova that appeared in Cassiopeia was seen for months and even during the daytime.
Eventually the remnants of the supernova condenses into something so dense that and with such a strong gravitational pull that not even light can escape – a black hole. During this process the heavier elements are created. Most of the matter on Earth including that which makes up human being was created within a supernova.
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